What Are Dental Crowns?
A dental crown is a protective cap for a damaged, weak, broken, or cosmetically displeasing tooth. Crowns can be made of different materials, including metal, zirconia, porcelain, ceramic, and porcelain-fused-to-metal, which vary in appearance and durability.
A crown is fabricated to perfectly fit over your tooth and act as a protective barrier between the chewing forces you encounter when you eat to prevent worsening damage. Crowns also offer cosmetic properties, however, and can be used to cover aesthetic imperfections in your smile.
While veneers are tooth-colored covers bonded to teeth to hide their cosmetic flaws, crowns can perform the same job while acting as a much sturdier and stronger cap that will prevent future breakage.
Finally, crowns are also attached to tooth restorations like bridges and dental implants to replace missing teeth. The crown portion of the tooth is what shows when you smile and is what is used for functions like chewing.
Why You May Need a Dental Crown
Most commonly, dental crowns are a restorative procedure that is necessary to protect vulnerable teeth when they have been significantly damaged or have been weakened. Some situations that would require a dental crown include:
- Chips or cracks
- Having a broken tooth
- Having a large cavity
- Getting a root canal
- Enamel erosion
This prevents the need for more costly and invasive treatment and prevents tooth loss by preventing worsening damage and strengthening the existing tooth. A crown can hold a broken tooth together so it doesn’t fall apart.
If your teeth are perfectly healthy but you’re unhappy with the appearance of a single tooth, crowns can correct these aesthetic irregularities by covering up the appearance of the tooth with an aesthetic crown that is fabricated to look like a natural crown. This way, you can cover up aesthetic problems such as:
- Discoloration
- Misshapen tooth
- Teeth that are too small
- Teeth that are too sharp
The Dental Crown Placement Process
If she detects any active oral health problems like tooth decay or gum disease, these need to be treated first. Any existing decay needs to be removed before placing a crown over your tooth. To prepare a tooth for a dental crown, we need to reshape it by filing it down with a dental drill.
This is under anesthetic so you don’t feel any discomfort. We will remove some of your natural enamel on all sides and shape it in a way that is ideal to fit inside of a crown. After shaping and trimming are done, we will take impressions of your tooth.
These serve as a model for your custom-made crown and are sent to the dental lab in charge of creating them. We can use a shade guide to match your natural teeth to the crown material. While you wait for your crowns to be fabricated, we will bond a temporary crown to protect your filed-down tooth and restore your smile.
You will wear this temporary crown for a few weeks until your official crown is finished. Once we have received your official crown at our office, we will call you back in so we can bond the official crown to your tooth.
This entire process can be completed in two appointments. If you need a dental crown, contact us at Dental Wellness in Bergen County today to schedule a consultation with Dr. Allison Moses.
